Thimbles and Thumbs
THIMBLES AND THUMBS NEW YORK politics are not unlike the heroine of that very old-fashioned play, Lady Windermere's Fan. Widely estimated as possessing no character whatever, they none the less...
...It is not the highest ambition of the city of New York...
...Sometimes better and sometimes worse, Tammany has always been conscious of the circumstance that, like the heroine mentioned above, respectability has not been the chief item in its advertising copy—that granted the social amalgam of the great city it was hardly possible to play ball with that integrity demanded of college athletes in a fairly recent Carnegie report...
...Tactically he has driven the old Tammany municipal car, stopping occasionally to put on a new tire or to adjust the carburetor, and those who wanted the machine rebuilt have known he was not their man...
...Widely estimated as possessing no character whatever, they none the less manifest in practice sundry virtues for which the denizens of other large cities can only sigh...
...Nobody has ever believed him a managerial genius or even a particularly self-sacrificing plodder...
...But Mr...
...That would be politically inexpedient, and besides it would mean a lot of discomfort and delay...
...Even so it is obvious that the quality of New York city government as a whole is noticeably good...
...Instinctively canny and supple of demeanor, his friends are those who admire his diplomatic adroitness and his enemies are those who wish to see hard study and thought applied to the solution of municipal problems...
...For better or for worse, this fact constitutes a widely prevalent cliche of which, on the whole, one is not ashamed...
...In short, Tammany has been a society in which the ideal and the real dwelled together with at least enough harmony to win increasing approval on election days...
...And it is impossible not to feel disappointed when the oracle who was expected to utter something of importance about scandals of real moment said nothing more than this: I am turning up my nose at the evil which has been brought to light, because it has not been proved that everybody else isn't good...
...In other words: Jimmie is driving so nicely now that he is simply not interested in giving the car a thorough overhauling...
...Nothing can obliterate dishonesty and inefficiency in public service, particularly when the individuals under fire have raked in huge winnings...
...This has, it is true, never been a perfect exemplification of all the civic virtues...
...But for Tammany and the city nothing is of greater importance than the mayor...
...Which is not to say that the mere oratory of righteous indignation is a commodity of value...
...It offers a service which is nowhere antiquated and which is often surprisingly useful...
...A series of investigations, some of them involving magistrates and officials whose good names were taken for granted, made entertaining reading for the public in all parts of the country...
...Possibly his driving has been his pride...
...Jimmie has all the charm and limitations of the conservative...
...Walker knows that he can reassure the public and, without making his counsels more vocal than necessary, set to work putting the house in better order that it can boast of now...
...The middle ground between the two groups is probably the right one...
...One may nevertheless declare that, to a greater extent than can be claimed by other political solidifications, it has also striven to reward and acclaim men of the finest civic temper and integrity...
...others have indulged in sundry I told you so's...
...It is not model city government...
...and in this case also it may be true that pride goeth before the fall...
...Recent events have restated these old facts...
...What were the misdemeanors of seven public servants, he inquired, when nearly 125,000 officials are on the city's payrolls and going to work with diligence and virtue...
...With magistrates and commissioners under fire, he arose to make a very debonair address about a "few finger marks on the walls...
...Some have pooh-poohed the matter...
...New York also has many extraordinary advantages in educational facilities, public parks and clinics...
...Owing to racial and social amalgamations, the democratic ideal of government could be sponsored by a strong central organization which from time immemorial has been known as Tammany Hall...
...That Jimmie Walker has occupied the niche to the satisfaction of the majority is fairly evident from election returns and other concrete sources of information...
...Imagine the motorist who should declare, I pay no attention to that burned-out bearing, because the rest of the car may be all right I To expect citizens to rest content with manana advice of this sort is to consider them far more interested in jokes than they really are...
...But this lackadaisical jacknaping is not the best of which Tammany has proven itself capable...
...Now and then sundry of its collaborators have thriven on spoils the collection of which was not a secret...
...He declined the assistance of the Bar Association in selecting candidates for the bench...
...He would hardly change anything excepting his clothes—or the police commissioner...
...We speak of these things not merely because the conduct of the metropolis is of incalculable moral effect throughout the nation, but also because circumstances have made Tammany the expression of reigning Catholic political consciousness...
...Notice, for instance, the Walker method of dealing with recent exposes...
...He represents the character of the administration and is accepted by the public as a guarantee of integrity...
...One agrees...
...Nor shall we make a brief for the theory which assumes that a municipality must pay more for good government than its salary lists specify—must, for instance, permit a certain amount of palm-gilding in order to maintain good will all around...
...The police department is not in league with desperate gangsters...
...Efforts to unearth misconduct not only got no support from him, but his remarks actually tended to throw cold water on those efforts...
...Despite the bad effect of politics on the transportation problem, traffic is handled generally with as much intelligence as the citizen can reasonably expect...
...Fortune has to some extent been kind...
Vol. 12 • August 1930 • No. 14
